Workshop on chemical names and their translation

Presentation of all IUPAC nomenclatures and related work. Translation of chemical names in the European Customs Inventory of Chemical Substances (ECICS).

Customs, throughout the world, are an important element in the trade of goods. Everything coming in or leaving a country must be declared and controled. In particular in the field of chemicals, the task of the Customs officials is rendered difficult by the huge number of products traded, the existence of several systems to name chamicals and the numerous languages in the world, without forgetting that Customs officials are rarely chemists.

European Union (EU) Customs have decided for decades to promote the use of IUPAC nomenclatures to name chemicals in a clear and universal way, alongside with some other international naming systems. To help Customs and economic operators in the declaration and control of chemicals, the Directorate-General Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) of the European Commission has in parallel created the European Customs Inventory of Chemical Substances (ECICS), a database containing the most traded chemicals with the useful data for the Customs declaration. A software was also developed to translate IUPAC names in the EU languages.

This software is currently updated and this workshop is the opportunity to present the update work and to seek cooperation. Moreover it is a good occasion to celebrate the IYC, considering the diversity of languages more as a wealth than a burden.

The workshop is organized by DG TAXUD, DG Translation and Belgian Customs on 17-18 November 2011, in Brussels, Belgium. The first day will be a presentation of the IUPAC nomenclatures. The second day will be dedicated to the translation of IUPAC names. Some other points will be touched like the use of naming softwares and the use of InChI identifier.

This workshop is dedicated to EU Customs chemists and IUPAC experts. Nevertheless, given the obvious interest for people dealing with chemical names and their translation, it will be open to a limited number of participants from industry, translation companies and universities. The proceedings of the workshop will be available afterwards.